Metal stent implantation for palliation of malignant biliary obstruction: A report of 57 cases

Table 1 Causes of bile duct obstruction in 57 patients

Cause of bile duct obstruction	Location of stenosis			No. of patients
	P	M	D
Cholangiocarcinoma	30	3	1	34
Gallbladder carcinoma	3	1	0	4
Hepatocellular carcinoma	7	0	0	7
Pancreatic carcinoma	1	0	6	7
Ampullary tumor	0	0	2	2
Metastasis	3	0	0	3
Total	44	4	9	57

P: Proximal part of the common bile duct; M: Middle part of the common bile duct; D: Distal part of the common bile duct.

Table 2 Relation between the Bismuth classification and drainage sites in patients with hilar malignancy

Type	No. of patients	Drainage site
		H	L	R	RA	RP
I	8	2	3	2	0	1
II	3	0	1	1	0	1
IIIa	5	0	2	0	1	2
IIIb	4	0	0	0	0	4
IV	24	0	6	2	4	12
Total	44	2	12	5	5	20

H: Common hepatic duct; L: Left hepatic duct; R: Right hepatic duct; RA: Right anterior intrahepatic duct; RP: Right posterior intrahepatic duct.

Table 3 Common complications of metal biliary stenting[2,9]

	Huibregtse et al, 1992 (103 cases)	Hoepffner et al, 1994 (118 cases)	Our group, 1996 (57 cases)
Early cholangitis	2	5	2
Late cholangitis	18 (125 d)1	17 (148 d)	9 (147 d)
Tumor ingrowth	10	4 (150 d)	4 (150 d)
Tumor overgrowth	4	5	4 (128 d)
Sludge clogging	5 (175 d)	N/A	1 (210 d)

¹Numbers in parentheses are median days